Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2013 - Page 59

ing networking facilitator in cleantech sector in Finland.
The Finnish Cleantech Cluster has already helped to create over 500 new greencollar jobs and dozens of new international business opportunities for Finnish cleantech companies. In recent years, the cleantech sector in Lahti has been growing rather
nicely, with special expertise to be found in
e.g. public water system maintenance, international projects, soil treatment, waste management and recycling.
Call of the Tracks
Mayor Myllyvirta is of the opinion that even
as various types of companies have made
Lahti their home, there will be even greater attraction in the future as central areas
around the railway tracks will receive a total makeover. Starting with the vicinity of
the train station, these grounds represent the
most significant development opportunity
of this decade – and the next one, Myllyvirta believes.
“As we are effectively connecting the
area by the tracks to the downtown, there will
be plenty of synergies to be enjoyed and the
urban structure will become so much more
diverse.” According to the plans, the emergence of diverse business premises and residential units will help turn the environs of the
ing of the natives – the City of Lahti was
among the first to have a municipal board
of environment, for instance, and attention
paid to waste management and recycling has
been noteworthy also in international comparison.
Against this background, it is no wonder that ten percent of Finnish environmental
business operations are located in the Lahti Region, along with a strong environmental Business Park and three universities with
their own environmental units. As it stands,
Lahti Region is Finland’s most important
regional cluster for research, education and
business in the field – and it has been making waves internationally, also.
In fact, a couple of years ago, Danuta Hübner, the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, hailed the Finnish Cleantech
Cluster and its coordinator Lahti Development Company LADEC as a model example of concrete results achieved with the help
of EU funding. Today, LADEC is a lead-
railway station into a “modern travel hub”
where train and bus connections merge.
Already in the area, there is, for example, the Asko business area, which has
proved the attractiveness of the neighbourhood. According to Myllyvirta, it is not hard
to see why companies find this area appealing: it’s only a couple of minutes’ walk to the
train which can take you to Helsinki within the hour – or to St. Petersburg in just a
couple of hours.
“In the future, all development will be
focusing on connections more and more.
With this trackside construction, we are very
much tapping into that growth potential.”
Crocodile Campus
To boost the development, the City set up
a World Design Capital 2012 architecture
competition for the development of the
trackside – the contest in question was, in
fact, the single largest architectural competition launched during WDC2012. In the
competition, also the citizens were asked
for their opinions, as citizen participation
is deemed to have a central role in the planning of the area. Citizens, with widely varying viewpoints, were included in the generation of ideas for the area from the start.
Ultimately, the winner of the competition
was architecture agency Ajak with its plan
‘Green Crocodile’.
Jyrki Myllyvirta, Mayor of Lahti, says that Lahti is a great match for companies of
all sizes.
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